All About Easy!

I don't know what I would do without SCS! I get so much of my inspiration or is that motivation I get from there? What ever you want to call it, I manage to "find" a little time to actually finish a card from time to time.
The case in point is from this weeks CAS (clean and simple) challenge. What could be more simple? I used my newest cuttle bug folder that I bought off HSN (Home Shopping Network, for those of use that do not send much time shopping on line.) I was one of the last to snag a cuttle bug bundle last week-end....... good price too! I did not see a name for the folder but I really like the "half embossed" look this folder gives.
The paper is a red metallic foil board that I embossed, takes 2 seconds. I love the way the foil board embosses. You do have to use a light touch when embossing or the white board will show through. The white circle I already had cut out from another project that I did not use. No time used to make that. Both pieces are layered on Classic white card stock.
The Dove and Holly are stamped with charcoal Palette ink and colored with Holly and Cool Neutral Copic Collections. 5 minutes max to color that small image. OK now it did take me a good 10 or 15 minutes to cut out the image, but hey I do watch TV some times and commercials are not that interesting.

I am still not ready for Christmas (my main Christmas comes the Sunday after) but I did find that one gift that I thought I had already wrapped. WOW, maybe I will not follow family tradition this year and find 1 gift days after the fact.

I better get back at cleaning.....................thank you for stopping.

Merry Christmas!

Sushi Challenge

After a night of parting at Flourishes power hour release party, I have trouble going to sleep until I wind down for a few hours. Since I was already on SCS and it was getting to be the midnight hour (at least on the East coast) I decided to check out the next days challenge. Much to my delight I found that the inspiration challenge had been posted a little early. I went right to work using inspiration from SushiPot!
Flourishes has just released three stamp sets that have 12 floral images along with a down loadable calendar that is free (calendar) with the purchase of all three Year In Flowers Calendar Set. Not only that, but the three sets are on sale (as a bundle) through Thursday December 17th.
From Calendar set 1 comes Primroses, a low growing flower that loves the cold. Not a flower that is seen in the South until now, you can color your own version. Marcella Hawley has done such a marvelous job with the detail on the leaves and floral buds that its a breeze to color.

I use the Copic Evergreen (YG) and Peony (RV) collection as marketed by Flourishes, then air brushed the background with C1 (copic).

All cuts done with Spellbinders, Versa Mark daubed all over the largest circle with dazzling diamonds sprinkled over it. Glue all the layers together and add some white velvet ribbon.

There you have IC210!

Thank you for visiting................ Are your ready for Christmas?

A Touch of Winter

It is time for Flourishes release party this week.........the first peek of the week is A Year in Flowers Calendar set 1 .
This week I have combined a new stamp set with SCS color and design challenges. Christmas is coming fast, even though the outside temp is in the high 70's today. So it is all about saving time this month. One card for three different events saves time!
The stamp set comes with four different flowers all approx the same size, 2 " x 2" for a variety of uses. Here I have paired January's crocus with barely banana, raspberry, and artichoke papers. The image was stamped then colored. I covered the area around the floral image with a square cut from copy paper and used an air compressor to add Copic E97 and a SU artichoke marker to "recolor" the yellow background paper while leaving the immediate area surrounding the crocus the original color.
I have used cuttle bug embossing folder, Spellbinders frame die and Spellbinders fancy tags to add interest with a little metal Finishing Touches.

Thank you for stopping by and check out more at Flourishes.blogspot.com for many more Calendar ideas.

Finally, it has been soooooo long since my last post I will have to see if I remember how to do this. But first a tid bit of advice.......if you happen to break your camera lens close, I mean even two months away, from Christmas.......don't wait to replace it. Go out immediately and buy a new one or you will have to wait till after Christmas or special order it. Bah humbug! No one has it in stock.
Now I am reduced to taking pictures with my little Sony Cyber shot... you know....that camera I thought was just the best thing for all my scrap book pictures, and it was for some time when I was taking all my pictures outside.
Once I started taking more and more pictures inside, I found that the flash was just not good enough and besides I had a 35mm camera.............that took film pictures............that you had to develop and throw out all the bad shots. Now, once I started making cards I found out in a big hurry that a 35mm nor a small digital was not giving me the quality type of shots I needed for Webb posting. I am not very good at dealing with lighting, sun light or indoor light, I like my 35mm digital where I can be a foot away from the card and still get a good flash shot at night!
whine whine whine I'll get the glasses and you can join me......... At least I have a back up camera.

I played along this week on SCS color challenge of Very Black Suede. I would not have thought I would like the combination for a Christmas card as much as I do ...........even though I planned on doing just that.
I started with Flourishes Classic Ivory Card stock, stamped the image on the left side of card using rich cocoa, then I stamped it a second time, then a third time before I re-inked my image and stamped twice on the right side of the panel, I was wanting the "forest" to have some depth to it.
The deer and sleigh was stamped right over the trees, no masking which makes it fast. I stamped a second image of half of the sleigh, colored it, cut is out and place over the first stamped image. Walla.....it keeps the trees from showing though. I daubed around the edge of my planel with close to cocoa, then took the chcolate chip ink pad and ran it over the edges.


I finished of with faux suede ribbon and a ribbon slide from Finishing Touches that I colored with Copics, I only have the silver slides.
I have also seen numerous cards using Spellbinder dies in many clever ways, If you don't believe me than take a look at the Flourish newsletter for an excellent example. I used the fancy tag to finish off the look.

Thanks for continuing to check on my blog, I will try to get more posted............with decent pictures